In memory of Walter Becker - vote - your favorite Steely Dan album

[NRaleighLiberal]

Listing each album with perhaps my two favorite tracks on each....I really didn't get in anything post - Gaucho all that much, so no faves for those)

Vote - and say why.

16 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Can't Buy a Thrill (Do it Again, Reelin' in the Years)
	4 (25%)
	Countdown to Ecstacy (Bodhisattva, My Old School)
	1 (6%)
	Pretzel Logic (Rikki Don't Lose That Number, Parker's Band)
	2 (13%)
	Katy Lied (Black Friday, Dr Wu)
	1 (6%)
	Royal Scam (Kid Charlemagne, Don't Take Me Alive)
	2 (13%)
	Aja (Black Cow, Aja)
	4 (25%)
	Gaucho (Babylon Sisters, Third World Man)
	2 (13%)
	Alive in America
	0 (0%)
	Two Against Nature
	0 (0%)
	Everything Must Go
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[NRaleighLiberal]

1. I picked Katy Lied (for that killer opening Black Friday and so many others)

but could have also picked Pretzel Logic or Aja. Being 61, I discovered Steely Dan as I was picking up the electric guitar - spent countless hours trying to learn some of the solos (and threw up my hands at Denny Dias work on Your Gold Teeth - both versions!)

I actually could do a good job with Reelin in the years, Kid Charlemagne, etc - that was then, this is now!

[Loge23]

2. Tough call

Kind of like picking favorite Beatles tune. There's just too much excellence. I went with the Royal Scam as it was a particular favorite of mine back in the day. The entire record just flowed so well.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. it's easier to pick the few songs that were NOT superb. few and far between.

[WiffenPoof]

4. I also picked The Royal Scam

Tough call between The Royal Scam and Aja.

I suppose the The Royal Scam appealed to me because it is largely guitar driven. I liked their rock 'n roll side. Although Aja's near perfection is hard to ignore.

[sweetloukillbot]

5. Royal Scam

Larry Carlton's guitar solo on Kid Charlemagne and the sheer majesty of the title track - sadly relevant nowadays...

[bronxiteforever]

6. Aja for Deacon Blues

“The protagonist in “Deacon Blues” is a triple-L loser_an L-L-L Loser. It’s not so much about a guy who achieves his dream but about a broken dream of a broken man living a broken life,” Becker said in a Wall Street Journal interview in 2015. “Deacon Blues” was special for me. It’s the only time I remember mixing a record all day and, when the mix was done, feeling like I wanted to hear it over and over again. It was the comprehensive sound of the thing: the song itself, its character, the way the instruments sounded and the way Tom Scott’s tight horn arrangement fit in.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/5-notable-steely-dan-songs-to-remember-walter-becker/2017/09/03/b5e440ac-90fe-11e7-8482-8dc9a7af29f9_story.html?utm_term=.74c78d20035d

These lyrics get in me in gut every time I hear them

"Learn to work the saxophone
I play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whiskey all night long
And die behind the wheel
They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues"

[hay rick]

12. My vote too, and for the same reason.

And can't forget Josie- could be my favorite love song.

[A HERETIC I AM]

7. Can't pick, but these lyrics are very prescient today

"King of the World" from Countdown to Ecstasy

Hello one and all
Was it you I used to know?
Can't you hear me call
On this old ham radio

All I got to say
I'm alive and feeling fine
Should you come my way
You can share my poison wine

[Chorus]
No marigolds in the promised land
There's a hole in the ground
Where they used to grow
Any man left on the Rio Grande
Is the king of the world as far as I know

I won't take your bread
I don't need no helping hand
I can't be no savage
I can't be no highwayman

Show me where you are
You and I will spend this day
Drivin' in my car
Through the ruins of Santa Fe

[Chorus]
No marigolds in the promised land
There's a hole in the ground
Where they used to grow
Any man left on the Rio Grande
Is the king of the world as far as I know

I'm reading last year's papers
Although I don't know why
Assassins, cons and rapers
Might as well die

When you come around
No more pain and no regrets
Watch the sun go brown
Smoking cobalt cigarettes

There's no need to hide
Taking things the easy way
If I stay inside
I might live till Saturday

[Chorus]
No marigolds in the promised land
There's a hole in the ground
Where they used to grow
Any man left on the Rio Grande
Is the king of the world as far as I know

[PJMcK]

8. "Two Against Nature"

Although I grew up in the '60s and '70s, I didn't get into Steely Dan until just before "Gaucho." Then, they broke up! They're discography remained on my playlists for years afterward.

Two decades later, "Two Against Nature" came out and it was as if they had never left!

RIP, Walter.

[pressbox69]

9. Katy Lied

Dr. Wu and Any World.

[NRaleighLiberal]

10. Giving a kick. Cool results so far!

[NRaleighLiberal]

11. kicking for the night music loving crew

[SwissTony]

13. Can't Buy a Thrill was my intro to Steely Dan.

I went to a party hoping to "bump into" a young woman. She wasn't there, but I stayed for the music and became an instant fan.

I did manage to bump into the young woman on a different occasion. She turned out to be rather silly. So silly that she's still with me nearly 36 years later. But she doesn't like Steely Dan.

[DFW]

14. Give it time

I've been with mine for 43 years, and she likes Steely Dan. We saw them here in Germany several years ago, and they were absolute dynamite--as good live as they were on record.

[Deb]

15. The long version of FM (No static at all), I don't know the album

I remember how great a static free radio station sounded. Or Cousin Dupree which came out before sexual abuse could be discussed.

[BarbaRosa]

16. Hard to say a favorite one,

but I saw them during the "Can't Buy a Thrill" tour. It was a cool concert, Mason Proffit, Sha Na Na and Steely Dan.

[Wolf Frankula]

17. I picked Aja

tho' Gaucho and Countdown to Ecstacy are close seconds.

Wolf

Actually, I love them all.

[Generic Brad]

20. I've worn out Aja in three mediums

LP, cassette and CD. Now I have a digital version of it. That album brings back some fond memories of my teenage years. I had a lot of firsts and Aja was the soundtrack for most of them.

[progressoid]

18. Citizen Steely Dan - 4CD box set!

Actually I went with Pretzel Logic. I like them all, but that was one of the ones that first got stuck in my brain!

[Wolf Frankula]

19. Steely Dan Was the ABSOLUTE MASTER

of the driving around late at night song. And yes they were named after a steam powered dildo in William Burroughs' 'Naked Lunch'.

Wolf

[Beaverhausen]

21. How did Gaucho only get three votes?

including mine?

really?

I know...it's so hard to choose one.

[PRETZEL]

22. Pretzel Logic

naturally,